Tina West, Kim Clegg and Lesley England
Community Solutions, Proserpine
”We’re always working closely together and sharing ideas - each one of us is as passionate as the next”
NESA Award Nominees – Excellence in Indigenous Employment Award
Tell us a bit about your backgrounds guys, and how did you become EC’s?
Lesley: I personally was an EC many years ago within Both DES and JA, but the last 3 years been working as Work Force Solutions officer, linking both Employers and Job Seekers
Kim: Small crop farming in Bowen. We did that for 10 years.
Whilst working for a local produce seedling business the opportunity arouse for a Job Placement Officer position with NEATO Employment Services. Knowing a few of the staff @ NEATO I asked about the position and then submitted my application based on my sound knowledge of the local labour market including local farmers and also business owners. SUCCESS!
After a year I moved into an admin assistant role for a Job Search Trainer in Townsville. I enjoyed the client contact and found that I was learning much more about the industry and felt confident to take on an individual caseload with low levels of disadvantage. That led to a position with the Highly Disadvantaged Caseload – I had found my niche.
I moved back to Bowen in 2014 and secured a position with Community Solutions – continuing in my role as an Employment Consultant and continuing my passion of making a difference to someone’s life and working with a team who also hold this passion and drive. I always say this is my retirement job!
Tina: Being being self-employed in the retail industry for 9 years and a local to the Whitsunday Region for over 29 years gave me a good background knowledge in the local culture, diversity and socio-economic environment of Proserpine. After owning my own business I decided to work casually in hospitality to “clear” my mind and not have any responsibility for a while. This lasted 2 years and I was ready to take on new challenges. I had a friend in the employment sector who used to work for Community Solutions and I had heard so much about the work she did with job seekers and the great company Community Solutions is, that when a position came up for an EC I applied. This was my first real job application and lucky for me I was given the opportunity of an interview. Nervous as anything I attended the interview dressed for success! Four years later I’m still here. Every day I love coming to work as there are always new challenges and rewards knowing that we have in some small way changed lives. I use my life experiences to assist others in changing their lives.
Tell Us About Your Region? What are some of the obstacles that job seekers may face in your region?
Group answer: The Whitsundays is a wide region covering from outback Collinsville to the 74 Islands in the Whitsundays. We have a diverse culture and at times it’s very transit with its population due to the industries in the area. The Whitsundays is paradise! Our job seekers have a wide variety of career paths to choose from.
Our region has an abundance of industries ranging from horticulture, hospitality, retail and tourism. These industries allow our job seekers to diversify their skills and expand their knowledge. It’s about teaching our jobseekers transferrable skills that they could use across the many industries we have in the area.
But after Cyclone Debbie the focus has shifted to a big labour/construction market. Now it’s about rebuilding people’s lives.
In terms of obstacles for job seekers, transport and licensing are the biggest obstacles. Our local bus service does not cater for late night services to the Proserpine town so many of our job seekers rely on friends and family to drive them to and from work if the work hours are outside of the bus timetable.
Many of our job seekers need to travel to either Mackay or Townsville to do courses with Registered Training Organisations.
Local job seekers sometimes need to compete with the influx of Work Visa eligible back packers – especially for jobs in hospitality and horticulture.
You guys have been recognised as a high achieving team. What are your roles and how do they come together? What do you think makes you such a successful team?
Group answer: We’re always working closely together and sharing ideas – each one of us is as passionate as the next.
We’re getting to know our job seekers well, and not just addressing their work needs but how we can get them “job ready/job aware”.
As Employment Consultants we help our clients with realistic directions and help then become ‘job ready’. Our Workforce Consultant Lesley England then works with the client and ‘reverse markets’/ matches these clients to suitable positions. The Employment Consultants work with both the client and Workforce Consultant to ensure that any further needs (including further training) are met to ensure a job placement is secured.
It’s also about hard work, communication, dedication to job seekers, knowing our job seekers, knowing our employers, and understanding job seeker barriers.
You’ve utilised State Government programmes (Youth Boost) and also partnered with another company to create the ‘Host2Hire’ programme. Tell us about Youth Boost and the Host2Hire programme?
Group answer: Firstly the Host to Hire (H2H) made us aware of how we could get employers to give indigenous job seekers a go – some employers had never worked with an Indigenous person before. With the Youth Boost employers saw for the first time of how working with young people could benefit their business.
We (Tina and Kim) worked hard with WSC Lesley to refer our Indigenous job seekers to jobs. As Proserpine had a high rate of young Indigenous on the caseload we were able to utilise the Youth Boost funding and H2H to place 18 – 24 year olds into contract employment for 6 months. This would give our indigenous youth skills and experiences to gain full time employment either with their host employer or a new employer. We had to work hard to overcome their barriers to get them to work for 24 hrs per week. We assisted the job seekers clothing, water bottles and bus tickets to get to and from work. We encouraged and supported these guys every day and followed up with ongoing support to ensure that they stayed in employment.
H2H opened up so much opportunity within our region. It allowed us to be able to refer job seekers with limited experiences / training to secure employment with businesses that would normally look for experienced staff. Local employers have embraced the funding opportunities and embraced the opportunity to train “green” staff. The majority of these clients remain with their initial host employer and have proven that these programs work!!!!
What do you like doing in your spare time guys? Any interesting hobbies?
Tina: I am a member of a not-for-profit organisation, Quota International of Whitsunday. We assist many local charities who support woman, children, people who are hard of hearing and people with disabilities. We fundraise throughout the year to support these charities. We also support other not-for-profit organisations by offering our time and services. When I’m not wearing a “Quota hat” I enjoy travelling. I try to travel overseas every 2 years and this is something I am passionate about as it has given me valuable experience and life lessons. I then have some wonderful stories to share with my clients who I hope to inspire to do better so they can travel.
I definitely believe that we need to have a work/social/family balance to live a happy and healthy life.
Kim: I am a “home body” and due to having such a busy and stressful working life in my younger years, just enjoy the simplicity of staying home and pottering around, listening to music or watching a great movie. My family is important to me, so any time we have catching up with my adult children and our grandsons is the best!!! Camping, fishing, hunting and sharing a meal.
Lesley: 5 years ago started clearing 10 acres of land and built our new home, loving the way I can make my own stamp on nature and help protect the environment.
Lesley, you look after the employer side of things, how easy is it to ‘get a foot in the door’, and how do you go about it?
Lesley: I do a lot of employer networking and talking with employers socially, where I believe they have more time to listen, as opposed to ‘cold calling’. Employers today are so tied up during the day in their business.
Another one for you Lesley. What are some of the things that you think employers value the most in potential employees?
Kim and Tina. What do you guys think are some of the keys to building good relationships with your job seekers?
Tina: Gaining a job seekers trust, listening to their stories and ensuring that they understand what and why they are with us. Encouraging and supporting them in every way we can. A lot of our job seekers have not ever experienced this in their lives.
Kim: Upfront honesty and understanding of their individual circumstances and just being myself! All I ever ask in return is clear communication.
Tell us about the Work Connections seminars you run?
Kim: I like my sessions to be productive and as much as I like to have an action plan, each session varies according to the group and numbers. Each client is at different levels so each client works on different elements – whether it be structuring their Career Profile on AJS, working on applications and cover letters, or setting up online job search profiles and ensuring resumes are current and marketable. On other days we have group discussions about the local labour market.
Thanks guys – let’s say there’s someone out there who’s just starting as an employment consultant. What advice would you give them?
Kim: Just be yourself – if you don’t know the answer just ask ! Embrace the opportunity to grow.
Tina: Be prepared. Be honest.
This job can be so rewarding and it’s such a warm and fuzzy feeling when we do succeed.
There is so much opportunity for a career once you understand the service we provide.
Lesley: It’s not an easy job to learn initially – it’s not just the computer systems, rules and regulations you have to work to. You need to be patient, like people and above all be a good listener. It’s about getting out of bed every day to make a difference!
